Why does MC for Linux not support trackinfo templates?
Just showing the cover is poor.
Theater View is not always the method of choice. Especially with multiple virtual screens, all screens are blocked by the theater View.
Are there technical reasons or is it just not "hip" anymore?
I, too, have requested (since my Media Center Windows days) what I term a movable and modifiable "nowplaying" desktop widget for MC. I also provided a working example in the Linux music player "gmusicbrower." A similar thing can also be accomplished using "Conky" with several other Linux music players: QuodLibet, Guayadeque, Audacious, MPD and one or two others (albeit without gmusicbrowser's killer active transport buttons).
Edit 04/24/18: Added a screenshot of combination of "Audacious" player output via a Conky script, plus Audacious' built-in dockable/undockable "album art" and "spectrum analyzer" (the analyzer is semi-worthless without db range and frequencies added). All of this appears in the lower left corner of all my desktops as needed. It's also controlled by my keyboard's media keys regardless of the desktop I am on. This is more or less what I wish for in MC24.
I agree that merely having a detachable Theater View album cover picture is totally insufficient.